On November 17, a day after the NYPD evicted Occupiers from Zuccotti, protesters turned Lower Manhattan into a Pennywise music video. It was pretty awesome.
On November 17, a day after the NYPD evicted Occupiers from Zuccotti, protesters turned Lower Manhattan into a Pennywise music video. It was pretty awesome.
Occupy Wall Street changes every day. In the two months I’ve been going down there, I’ve begun to recognize the regulars—the old headphone-wearing pro-communism guy with the Chinese newspapers, the British guy with the cowboy hat—but the vibe was always different. I’ve seen the protests go from a contained group of sign holders to a temporary squat, and eventually to an overcrowded tent city.
At first, I didn’t feel the desire to compete with the journalists, live streams, tourists, and hundreds of assholes with SLRs. Then a few of my friends began camping out in Zuccotti Park, the police started roughing people up, and pretty soon all I wanted to do was hang out and get a contact high off these idealistic kids.
The entire ordeal is a photographer’s dream come true. If you’ve got a camera, Occupiers love you—every time an arrest or a beat down happens, hundreds of protesters yell, “Shame, shame, shame” or “Get a photographer over here.” However, when shooting without an official city-issued press pass, you have to be real careful not to end up in those inhumanely tight zip ties or cracked in the head with a baton. I tried my best to float in and out of hairy situations and avoid pissing off the cops. One time, when things were getting physical between the protesters and the police, I had the impulse to run into the center of the park for a shot, but an older protester grabbed my arm and told me to stand back. It was good advice, because moments later, I saw one of my friends get manhandled and zip-tied.
You can only see so much stuff like that before you find yourself firmly on the side of the Occupiers. Sure, lots of them are there to advance their own crazy causes, but you can’t help but feel a certain togetherness, that they’re making some kind of positive difference in the world. Occupy Wall Street is the most genuinely revolutionary movement I’ve ever seen, and I’m proud to help document it.
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